Soft play day before holiday?

[BabyDoge]

I'm having a bit of a disagreement with DM and would love some other perspectives.

We're going on holiday on Monday, and DM has kindly offered to take DC out for a couple of hours so me and DH can crack on with packing. I was very grateful for the offer, until she said she's going to take them to soft play. I asked her if maybe she could take them somewhere else, as I don't think they should be going to a germ factory the day before we go away 🙈 But she thinks I'm being too anxious and it would be fine.

AIBU? I have no problem taking them to soft play usually, but the day before we go away just feels like asking for trouble.

But ... you're taking them to an airport with a
thousands of people in close proximity, in public waiting areas where many people will be coughing, sneezing, touching things with unwashed hands, putting feet on seats, rolling dirty luggage around..... and then shoving them in close quarters for hours with a few hundred people on a plane...

Yeah, definitely soft play is the problem...

Oh good, I thought I had something else to be overly anxious about 🤣

The plane with recycled air is much more likely to make you ill. Yabu.

Lol, if you think soft play is worse... You're wrong. Airports are grim
People are fucking disgusting. I can guarantee you'll be touching othe peoples faeces, spit and snot at the airport. Breathing their germs in etc... people are coughing, sneezing all the time. Their don't wash their hands after toilet, and if they do they immediately touch door handles etc to go and nose round a shop, picking things up and putting down, and sit down at their bench, out their bags in the benches, touch touch touching things all the time.

It honestly would never have crossed my mind that taking them to soft play before a holiday would be a problem.

I've never heard anyone outside of MN going on about soft play being this nightmare germ factory full of diseased kids though. It's bonkers.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Have you met a 2 year old?

But it's the day before their flight on Germ Land Airways, departing from Germ World Airport.

They'd be sick one day later from that ... So either way you risk them being ill.

I’m dumbfounded op. Let them have fun at soft play fgs.

So are you only going to go away when you can keep them at home for a week first?

Germs have to go in the mouth generally so get your mum to sanitise hands before eating

there will be germs at the holiday venue

I am the same! DD doesn’t go to nursery yet and nearly always gets at least a cold at soft plays so they are a no go zone before holiday.

Sanitiser isn't good enough, they need to actually wash their hands.

Thanks, I'm sorry you have that it's terrible. I don't know if I can be classed as an emetophobe because I don't actually mind being sick myself, but I can't handle it when others are.

Definitely VERY normal for 2 year olds!!! 😂

I get you OP, I would be feeling anxious about the soft play too, but I have a history of being overly anxious about things (especially germ-related) so I know my perspective isn’t always great. I’m trying to focus on the most likely outcome in any situation to manage my own anxiety, and in your case, the most likely outcome is that they will be absolutely fine - enjoy the opportunity to pack in peace, if they get ill then cross that bridge when you get to it 😊 hope you have a lovely holiday x

YANBU - we purposefully avoid soft play before holidays and occasions. Been burnt before and it’s not worth the risk, can’t she take them to the park or somewhere else outdoors instead?

We may have just been unlucky but they have definitely caught various things on various occasions from soft play. We had to evacuate once when an older child threw up all over the baby section.

Best not take them on a plane then.

Yanbu, soft play is the ultimate germ incubator, it's basically a petri dish, people send their children in there with streaming noses without a care in the world because 'it's just germs' - not a chance I would risk it

Probably confirmation bias. You expect to catch something there because you've bought into this idea they are germ factories so are ascribing various bugs they could have picked up anywhere in the 24 hours before they were at soft play to soft play.

So you're taking them on a plane, no ventilation whatsoever for what 2.5 hours? People who will have been drinking and will need to urinate more, who probably won't wash their hands? People who will pick their nose, scratch their arse, will touch the surfaces you will touch, they will cough, breathe and sneeze all in a container that has no ventilation ..............

Plane is unavoidable though, whereas the soft play is the opposite.

Planes filter the air a bit anyway, sure they aren't perfect but nowhere near soft play levels of grim

Are you keeping them away from school/ pre school.
Travelling in a bubble to get to your destination?

Germs are everywhere.
My dcs have never picked up a bug from soft play and we've been more times than I care to even think about

Gosh this wouldn’t even vaguely cross my mind, I must have children with strong immune systems as I wouldn’t even make the connection.

i guess if you have children who are very prone to catching everything going maybe I would be more cautious.

You are being ridiculously unreasonable! Don't be surprised if your MIL doesn't offer to take the kids out again.

Thank you. DS has had some tests at the GP, blood tests and the like, and he's perfectly fit and healthy. He's just one of those kids. He's had HFM 3 times, croup bad enough to be hospitalised twice, mesenteric lymphadenitis after a nasty stomach bug.

I've had them both vaccinated against chickenpox so at least that's one less thing to worry about!